Wingnut Week In Review: From Russia, With Love?

While Hillary Clinton was shattering that glass ceiling, Donald Trump pulled off a first of his own: the first presidential candidate to invite a cyber attack against the United States.

This presidential election long ago entered the realm of “You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up,” but Donald Trump has once again gone where no presidential candidate has gone before. First, Trump threw the media and pretty much everyone else into a tizzy when he suggested, in an interview with the New York Times on the eve of his formal acceptance of the Republican presidential nomination, that under his leadership the US might not come to the assistance of NATO members if Russia were to invade them, unless they “have fulfilled their obligation to us.” President Obama just swore unwavering support for the new rapid reaction force to protect the most vulnerable North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Why would Russia hack in to DNC emails in an apparent attempt to help get Trump elected? Why would Putin want to help Trump and/or hurt Clinton? Well, Putin has made no secret that he and party prefer Trump over Clinton. Trump’s position that he would not automatically support NATO allies, appeals to Putin, who has threatened some of them. Likewise Trump’s support for letting Russia fight ISIS in Syria. Trump’s policies would allow an unprecedented expansion of Russia’s power and wealth. Besides, Putin holds a grudge against Clinton, accusing her of encouraging protests with her criticism of Russia’s 2011 elections.

“I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is.” Except that, Trump bragged on the GOP debate stage about chatting with Putin, and said during a National Press Club luncheon that he was in Moscow and that he spoke “directly with President Putin, who could not have been nicer.” Besides, it’s hard to believe that in all Trump’s business trip to Russia to court investors that he never once met or talked to Putin.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to clean up trumps mess, telling reporters at a Republican National Committee press conference, “What he means was that if Russia has them, they should turn them over to the FBI.”

Hillary Clinton showed she knows how to get under Trump’s skin. Her acceptance speech at the Democratic convention included this deadly zinger for Donald Trump: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

Apparently, a lot of speakers at the Democratic National Convention got under Donald Trump’s skin. [“You know what I wanted to. I wanted to hit a couple of those speakers so hard,” Trump said at a press conference in Florida](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/dnc-sends-trump-into-toddler-rage-i-wanted-to-hit-a-couple-of-those-speakers-so-hard/). ”I would have hit them. No, no. I was going to hit them, I was all set and then I got a call from a highly respected governor.“ Well, when you can’t win an argument with your ”very good brain,” you resort to your fists.

About Terrance Heath

Terrance Heath is the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. He has consulted on blogging and social media consultant for a number of organizations and agencies. He is a prominent activist on LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.